Thill-support.



F. B. WILLIAMS.

THILL SUPPORT.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 20, 1009.

970,285. Patented Sept. 13,1910.

awue/wtoaa J. a {@JLWM IOTWRESTB. MLL/AMS- I GROW FORREST B. WILLIAMS, OF COLUMBUS, NORTH CAROLINA.

THILL-SUPPORT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 26, 1909. Serial No. 530,009.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Fonnnsr B. WILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Columbus, in the county of Polk, State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Thill-Supports; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to thill supports, and has for one of its objects to provide a simply constructed device which may be readily attached to a pair of thills for supporting the same in elevated position when not in use, and which does not interfere with the usual operations of the thills.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simply constructed device of this character which may be readily attached to thills of different forms and sizes, or to the tongues of carriages, without change of the thill or tongues and without material structural changes in the improved device.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certain novel features of construction as hereinafter shown and described and then specifically pointed out in the claim; and, in the drawings illustrative of the preferred embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is a plan view of a pair of thills and the forward axle of a vehicle with the improvement applied, Fig. 2 is a side elevation with the axle in section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2 illustrating the construction of the adjustable clamping clips, Fig. 4 is a detail plan view illustrating a modification in the construction, Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1.

The improved device may be applied without material structural changes to thills or carriage tongues of various forms, and for the purpose of illustration a conventional air of thills is shown at 10-11 and conmated by the usual bar 12 and provided with the usual shackles 1314 by which the thills are coupled by the clips 15-16 to the axle 17, these parts being of the usual construction.

The improved device comprises a clip member preferably in U-shape, as shown at 18, and bearing over one of the thills and secured thereto by a clamp bolt 19. By this means the clip member may be adjusted upon the thill to any required position. The

bolt 19 is formed with a head 20 externally of one side of the clip 18 and with a threaded stud 21 projecting beyond the head, and mounted to swing upon this stud is an arm 22 having a lateral hook 23 at one end and extended at the other end into a handle like.

projection 24:. The arm 22 is provided with a plurality f transverse apertures 25 spaced apart to fit over the stud 21, so that the arm may be adjusted relatively to the clip when required.

The hook 23 is so located that the arm 22 remains constantly in contact with the upper side of the axle 1.7 when the thills are in their downward or operative position, as shown in full lines in Fig. 1. Thus the presence of the arm does not interfere with the usual operations of the thill when the thills are in their downward or operative position, while the hook 23 engages with the axle when the thills are elevated and supports them in their elevated position as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1. The hook 23 thus automatically engages with the axle when the thills are elevated, as will be obvious.

In Figs. 4 and 5 the modified construction is shown consisting in applying to the axle adjacent to one of the axle clips, for instance the clip 16, a plate 26 having a projecting lip 27 with which the hook 23 of the arm engages when the thills are disposed in their elevated position. In the modified construction the hook 23 is located at some distance from the free end of the arm 22 so that a relatively long fiat face 28 is produced which bears constantly upon the upper face of the member 26-27 when the thills are in their downward or operative position, as shown in Fig. 5. The plate 26 with its lip 27 may be employed in certain forms of axles, if required. The operation of disposing the thills in their inoperative position is produced by simply elevating the thills without manually manipulating the arm 22 and when the thills are to be lowered into their operative position, the driver simply raises the thills to a slight extent which releases the book 23 and enables it to be detached by downward pressure applied to the handle portion 24:.

The improved device is simple in construction, can be inexpensively manufactured, and applied, as before stated, without material structural changes to vehicles of various constructions, and does not interfere Patented Sept. 13, 1910.

With the usual operations of the thills or the tongue to Which it is attached.

What is claimed is The herein described thill support comprising an inverted U-shaped clip to be placed astride a thill and having openings in its arms at a point immediately below the thill, a bolt extending through said openings and having a pair of nuts to bear on the outer side of the arms of said clip and clamping said clip on said thill, one end of the said bolt extending beyond one of said nuts, an arm having a'plurality of adjusting openings near its front end adapting said arm to be adjustably andpivotally mounted on said extended end of said bolt, the said arm serving to bear on the axle and being provided at its rear end With a dovvnturned portion terminating in a forwardly extending hook to bear against the rear side of the axle, the Weight of said arm keeping .the same normally in engagement With the axle, and a nut on the extended end of the bolt and bearing against the outer side of said arm.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature, in presence of tWo Witnesses.

FORREST B. WILLIAMS. Witnesses C. H. WILLIAMS,

BUFORD F. WILLIAMS. 

